


odds are (we’re gonna be alright)

by pallasjoanna



Series: Established LadyNoir [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Also a bit of uno and implied spooning???, Established Relationship, F/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 22:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5309963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasjoanna/pseuds/pallasjoanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Marinette starts sneezing, it’s the beginning of the end.<br/>(She knows she’s being dramatic, but still.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	odds are (we’re gonna be alright)

When Marinette starts sneezing, it’s the beginning of the end.

(She knows she’s being dramatic, but still.)

It couldn’t even be the small harmless kitty ones. No, she just had to have those that wrack through her whole body and make her stagger a few inches backward. It could be worse. She could die in the middle of an akuma battle just because the villain happened to catch her mid-sneeze.

Adrien picks himself off the ground, patting debris off his hair after everything. “So is it just me, or do you sound like me when my feather allergy starts acting up?”

“You sound worse,” she says, but her retort falls short when she sneezes again. She lost track after the dozenth time today. “Ugh. Just a cold, I think.”

“You could’ve knocked Le Colosse on his butt with the—“ He mimes her sneezing, and she lightly punches him on the shoulder.

She’s relieved when they duck into a deserted alley before civilians and reporters swarm around the both of them, mostly because she’s not ready to see herself with a runny nose on Ladyblog. Without something life-threatening occupying her mind, her head now distinctly feels stuffed with cotton. It’ll feel even worse once she transforms back.

“Hey.” Adrien puts a gloved hand on her shoulder and is about to raise the other one, but he seems to rethink it. Instead, he lowers his forehead to touch hers. Her heart still likes to beat a little faster in her chest even now, and she leans into him, savoring his warmth and the slight tickle of his hair against her cheeks. He pulls away too quickly for her liking though.

“Wow,” he says with a completely unrepentant and shit-eating grin. “You’re really hot, my lady.”

“Aaand that’s how I know we’re both done for the day, kitty.” As if on cue, her earrings beep down and when her transformation is lifted, the world immediately goes spinning. Marinette manages to catch herself before she falls, leaning on the alley wall for support. “I’m fine,” she reassures him when he grips her arm. “Not fine _fine,_ but y’know, relatively fine except for the whole sick thing.”

“Well, you just scared off half of my life there,” he jokes again.

“You have nine.”

“Exactly.”

He graciously gives her his handkerchief when he transforms back, and they walk back to her house together through some unspoken agreement. She reassures her parents that yes, she’s fine, it’s just a bad cold, and she even tells Adrien that she’ll call him later because he is doing those sad kitty eyes at her again and those and any variation thereof always leaves her weak in the knees.

He must never know.

Of course, once she downs some medicine, she’s asleep like a rock the moment her head hits her pillow, and she’s very confused when she wakes up after what seems like a few minutes. A bright ray of sunshine hits her in the face through the window. She doesn’t remember it being this bright ever early in the morning.

“It’s nearly lunch,” Tikki informs her.

“ _What_?” Marinette checks her phone which helpfully informs her that it is eleven o’clock. She has missed calls from both Alya and Adrien. “Why didn’t anyone wake me up? Miss Mendelev’s tests are going to kill me if I miss even one class!”

“Relax.” Tikki hugs her cheek. “At least this way you can get some rest. You’ve been working very hard as Ladybug too, and that’s coming from someone who’s more than five thousand years old.”

“I—“ Marinette sighs. “You’re right.” She drops back on the bed. “Still, I feel like I should be doing something. I’m not even that sick now.” Her head does feel clearer. Her nose still feels stuffy, but she can’t have everything.

She sends a text to Alya and Adrien saying she’s fine. Her mother comes up to her room after a few minutes to check up on her. “How are you feeling?” her mother asks, placing a tray of food on a table. “Your father and I thought to let you sleep in. You’ve been stressed a lot lately.”

“I’ve been really busy at school, with being class president and all,” Marinette mumbles through the rehearsed excuse, and her mother nods at her explanation and reminds her to check her temperature later before leaving the room.

Without Ladybug (“I’m sure Paris can hold itself together for a day, Marinette. And Adrien would tell you if he spots an akuma.”), school, or her friends, Marinette finds herself—for the first time in forever—bored.

There’s only so many sketches she can make in a short span of time. Admittedly, the several patterned onesies she draws are decent, but she doesn’t have any idea of what to do after that. Maybe study? But that defeats the whole purpose of her resting up in the first place. She’s also not going near her sewing projects within a five feet radius if she can help it. She’s too far along for those to be ruined by her snot.

In the end, she picks up her phone and types out a message.

Marinette—12:51

_if you were the sick one, what would you do to keep yourself from dying of boredom?_

She doesn’t expect any reply from him for a while since afternoon first period is about to start, but her phone chimes in a few minutes later.

Adrien—12:54

_Yup, you sound okay now._

_Sleep?_

Marinette—12:55

_you are such a cat_

Adrien—12:55

_Marathon something?_

Marinette—12:57

_it’s more fun with somebody_

_hey_

_that could be date #14_

Adrien—13:03

_Date #15_

Marinette—13:04

_are you counting last week?_

_because it really doesn’t count_

Adrien—13:05

_Does too. Two words: candlelight dinner._

Marinette—13:06

_we were undercover_

Adrien—13:07

_Candlelight. Dinner._

_Why are we even numbering the dates?_

Marinette—13:10

_idk too_

_wait_

_it’s physics class_

_how are you not getting caught by miss mendelev????_

Adrien—13:13

_She’s still writing the exercise on the board._

Marinette—13:15

_ehhh i’ll talk to you later then_

Her phone chimes one last time just as she puts it back on her bedside table.

Adrien—13:16

_< 3_

…Did he—did he just—? She stares at the little heart on the screen, and if it isn’t for the fact that she’s still a bit tired from being sick, she would be dancing around the room right now and probably end up throwing her phone out of the window. As it happens, she settles for muffled screaming into her pillow instead.

That cat. How is she supposed to take a nap like this?

She doesn’t and just ends up studying after all.

But salvation comes in the form of her best friend at around four.

Alya—16:23

_heads up!!! we’re coming over_

Of course, by the time Alya has sent it, Marinette is pretty sure she is already at the bakery. Somebody knocks on her door just as she finishes that thought, and true enough, she sees Alya’s red hair peek out of the door first. Nino and Adrien follow her, both bearing trays of snacks which she knows her parents gave them. Her room becomes significantly more crowded and less silent after that.

She takes a step back and looks at the scene: Alya commandeering her computer, Nino fiddling with her radio, and Adrien on her couch, patting the space next to him. She gladly obliges and wraps an arm around his waist as she leans into him.

There’s a pleasant bubble of warmth growing in her chest with all three of them with her, and not for the first time, she thinks about how she’s so happy to have them.

“Please tell me you’re not all here to do homework,” she says.

Nino grabs something from his bag. “I brought Uno.”

Alya spins around in her computer chair and puts a hand to her cheek in mock horror. “Wow, we’re going to play the game that ruins relationships when we’re specifically here to cheer my best friend up?”

“Don’t mind her, Nino. She’s still a sore loser from the time she ended up with three plus four’s—“ (“I know you were hoarding all the good cards, Marinette!”) Marinette disentangles herself from Adrien and moves to sit on a cushion on the floor. “—and why not? Sounds fun.”

Adrien taps his chin thoughtfully. “’Ruins relationships’, huh?” And then he grins at her, and his tone is light and teasing. “Should I be worried, Princess?”

And Marinette grins back at him, slow and catlike, the way she knows he does when he’s about to make a pun or flirt with her or both. She’s pleased when there’s already a red tinge to his cheeks. “Don’t worry, kitty,” she drawls. “I’d still love you anyway.”

It’s supposed to be both payback for the heart and still entirely meant, but she still finds herself scrambling for extra tissues and an extra pillow to hide her face in while Adrien’s turns very very red. When she looks back up, Alya and Nino aren’t even bothering to hide their laughter.

The game goes as well as she expects it to be. Some alliances are formed (“Marinette, please give Nino a skip or something.”), some sacrifices are made (“Dude, do you have a reverse?” “But she has a plus four! …Fine.”), and by the end of it all, everyone finds out that Adrien really has such horrible luck (“How in the world did you end up with twenty cards?”). They’re on their fifth round when Natalie and everyone else’s parents start calling.

“My mom needs me to pick up something at the store,” Nino says before he leaves. “How are ya feeling now, Marinette?”

“Like I’m not about to blow a tank of snot in someone’s face, thanks for asking.” She sniffs for emphasis, and Nino laughs.

“Oh, I forgot about your gift.” Alya drops a folder on her desk. It sounds thick. “Tada!”

“Is it homework?”

“Well…”

“Oh come on.”

Adrien just gives her a peck on the cheek. “See you later!” he says before he runs down the stairs to the waiting car.

Marinette is a little surprised that he keeps his farewell brief this time, but she has known Adrien for far too long to not notice his choice of wording. The knock that comes on her roof deck door an hour after dinner is totally expected. He drops onto her bed clad in his Chat Noir costume and carrying a bag.

“I’m pretty sure patrol doesn’t involve making a pit stop at my house,” she says it as a hello, looming over him while he’s sprawled upside-down on her sheets.

He scrunches up his nose. “Yeah, about that, I don’t think I can fan the akuma all the way back to you, so this is just me passing up on patrol too.”

“And what have you got there?” She gestures to his bag.

His upside-down grin is no less unrepentant and shit-eating than his usual one. “Homework.”

Marinette sighs in resignation at the thought of the folder she has and climbs down to sit by her desk. “Fine, I’m also doing mine. Are you going to do that in costume or something? Chat Noir doing homework would probably be a big scoop over at Ladyblog—“

“Of course not. I’ll be doing it in style.” Behind her, she hears a soft thump as Adrien jumps from her bed to the floor, and she turns to him just in time to see him transform out of costume—

—and into a set of red polka-dotted pajamas.

There have been many times Marinette has been rendered speechless. This is one of those times. She sort of wants to ask where and when in the world did he get that, but with her brain a bit broken at the sight of her boyfriend wearing _Ladybug pajamas_ , her mouth flops open like a goldfish and her arms are all over the place.

“Like it?” Adrien even smugly twirls for her. “I saw it in my closet and thought of you.”

“What he means—“ Plagg peeks out of Adrien’s pocket before flying up to Tikki’s cubbyhole. “—is that it took him thirty minutes to pick it out.”

“Plagg!” He looks so betrayed by his kwami that Marinette breaks out of her stunned silence and doubles over laughing.

“If it helps,” she says. “I have a Chat Noir t-shirt too.” Three of them to be exact, and while she was still in denial several months ago, she would defend herself by saying that those had really nice designs. “And nope.“ She puts a finger to his mouth when he’s probably about to ask _when_ she got those. “Ask me after Date #15.”

“So the candlelight dinner does count.”

“Heh, don’t push your luck.”

Through some miracle—Marinette groans internally at the really bad sort-of pun—they both manage to finish their homework without any… distractions. It’s eleven already, and around this time, Adrien usually starts to pack up so he can head home before midnight like some bizarre adaptation of Cinderella. This time, he fingers his lips while he’s looking at her like he wants to ask something, and Marinette doesn’t know anymore what’s more distracting: his lips, the possibility of a make-out session (which is all kinds of a bad idea right now), or his pajamas.

(But he does look adorable in his pajamas.)

“Do you mind—“ He hesitates and visibly swallows. “If I stayed?”

“Like a sleepover?” Marinette blurts out, and she has this urge to bury herself under the blankets. Sleepover. What the heck, Marinette. “I don’t mind, but—“ She points to the overflowing tissues in the wastebasket. “You’re probably going to get sick because of me.”

“I don’t mind.” His expression is serious in one second and flippant in the next. “And even if I do, you can always break into my house.”

“Glad to know Ladybug will have some stunning defense in court. “ She laughs, and climbs up to her bed. Why not? She pats the space beside her on the sheets when Adrien still looks as if he can’t believe it.

It’s a little awkward at first, with the both of them trying to put their hands somewhere that’s completely innocent, but Adrien ends up hugging her from behind (“Sick person privileges,” he mumbles), and he starts lightly snoring only a few minutes in. Marinette holds his hand where it’s wrapped around her waist. Looks like she wasn’t the only one who’s tired after all.

And even if she wakes up sometime at dawn to an empty space on her bed, she can still say that it’s the best sleep she’s gotten in a long while.

* * *

“Adrien’s sick,” Nino announces two days later (she already had a feeling he might be when he started sniffling yesterday) just as Marinette reads his message to her. “How about we visit him after class? I don’t think his father will let us, but at least he’ll know we’ve got his back.”

“Crossing my fingers then.” Marinette types out a reply to Adrien. Complete with a heart emoji. Adrien sends back two.

She smiles (and Alya asks in very pointed teasing why she’s blushing) and leans back in her chair as first period starts, doing what she does best: planning. And if Natalie isn’t going to let the three of them in—well—she might take him up on his offer after all.

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from the song "odds are" by barenaked ladies.  
> I actually made established ladynoir into a series. You can spot the trash from 500 miles away, hahaha. Lemme know what you think?
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](http://pallasjoannas.tumblr.com/)


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